Movie Review: Star Wars: A New Hope

George Lucas’s Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (A) is a swashbuckling outer space adventure inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress. Reluctant hero Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) teams up with a surly smuggler Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and a mysterious wizard (Sir Alec Guinness) to help rescue the strong-willed Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) from the clutches of the Evil Empire, lead by villainous Darth Vader (voice of James Earl Jones). Exotic desert spaceports filled with amazing creatures, just-in-time escapes in battleships and military-precision missions all factor in to the plot as our heroes venture forward to save the “Rebellion.” This film is amazing fun for all ages and is the one movie from this series that stands alone or can be viewed as the first part of the “classic trilogy.” Borrowing from fantasy serials such as Flash Gordon, the film creates its own good-versus-evil mythology and consistently entertains with cliffhangers and close calls. John Williams’ superb score and many of the film’s classic lines have simply become iconic.